Applicators for applying a hair treatment product to hair are known. There are typically two types of applicator. The first type of known applicator comprises a handle and a retaining structure connected to said handle. In this design, the structure is for receiving, retaining and spreading said hair treatment product, and generally is comprised of a series of tines. Such applicators are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,420, U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,157 and, more recently, in US 2004/0065338. All these applicators have a retaining structure which comprises a predetermined arrangement of tines. Such applicators with tines provide a consistent result from hair root to hair tip, and/or from strand to strand. However, such applicators with tines offer little or no flexibility as to the application pattern for the hair treatment product, whereas different areas of the hair might call for different application pattern. The second type of applicator comprises brushes with bristles instead of tines. Such applicators with bristles provide for the desired flexibility, however they do not provide for a consistent result from root to tip, or strand to strand. Therefore, currently there is no one applicator design that meets both these needs. It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an applicator which would address these shortcomings. In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide an applicator for a hair treatment product, which allows some flexibility in the pattern of application of the hair treatment product, and which ensures a consistent application of hair treatment product, once a particular pattern has been chosen.